Single Point Operations software supports centralized control and automated operations of multiple data processing systems. As a part of the Single Point Operations software, Single Point Autoaction Message System (SP-AMS) software supports automated operations. SP-AMS is a utility that allows a user to specify messages to match and actions to perform when a message is received and matched.
Some systems require extremely complex sequences of commands to be entered by an operator in order to take advantage of certain system capabilities. For example, the Symmetrix storage system from EMC has disaster recovery capabilities that require operator knowledge of which disk groups are attached to which data processing system and entry of a long sequence of cryptic commands in a particular order. Proper use of this capability requires extensive training of operators. Even with proper training, however, the entry of commands may be error prone. Thus, Single Point Operations software and SP-AMS would appear to be suitable for automating operations of systems such as the Symmetrix storage system.
The Symmetrix storage system is configurable to provide data storage for multiple host data processing systems, and the storage space is separately administered for each host. Certain administrative operations performed on the Symmetrix system, for example, a remote copy, can be performed simultaneously for different host systems. The complex command sequences required to perform these operations and the need for multiple host systems to perform these operations simultaneously makes automation of these operations a non-trivial task. While SP-AMS software is generally used for automating complex command sequences, SP-AMS does not include support of multi-threaded command sequences.
A method and system that address the aforementioned problems, as well as other related problems, are therefore desirable.